■CiCNCi 


UNITED  STATES  RAILROAD  ADMINISTRATION 

DIRECTOR  GENER.\L  Or  RAILROADS 
BULLETIN  NO.  6 


EFFICIENT  AND  SUFFICIENT 
SUPERVISION  OF  RAILROAD  SHOPS 


PAPER  PREPARED  AND  PRESENTED  BEFORE 
THE  NEW  YORK  RAILROAD  CLUB 

By 
FRANK  McMANAMY 

ASSISTANT  DIRECTOR,  MECHANICAL  DEPARTMENT 


ISSUED  BY  DIVISION  OF  OPERATION 
CARL  R.  GRAY,  DIRECTOR 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT  POINTING  OFFICE 

1918 


ADDRESS. 

Mr,  Peesident  and  Members  of  the  New  York  Railroad  Club  : 

When  I  accepted  your  president's  invitation  to  address  you  this 
CA'er^g,  I  did  so  with  a  full  realization  of  the  fact  that  but  little 
time  for  preparation  could  be  spared  from  my  regular  work;  there- 
fore, I  have  not  come  before  you  this  evening  for  the  purpose  of  hold- 
ing any  post-mortems  over  past  performances  nor  to  make  any  ex- 
travagant predictions  for  the  future,  but  simply  to  talk  to  you  for 
a  short  time  about  what  I  believe  to  be  the  most  important  factor 
in  the  successful  and  efficient  operation  of  railroad  shops — namely, 
efficient  and  sufficient  supervision. 

It  is  pretty  hard  at  this  time  to  avoid  talking  of  the  two  subjects 
which  are  uppermost  in  everyone's  mind,  viz,  the  war  and  the  Liberty 
loan  upon  which  the  success  of  the  war  will  depend ;  but  I  feel  that 
every  loyal  railroad  man  in  the  country  is  in  fact  a  soldier  whose 
duty  is  to  keep  open  and  operate  the  first  link  in  the  long  line  of  com- 
munication that  extends  from  the  fields  and  factories  of  America  to 
the  battle  front  in  France;  therefore  it  should  be  just  as  unnecessary 
to  talk  to  them  about  the  need  for  their  best  efforts  toward  winning 
the  war  as  it  would  be  to  talk  to  our  soldiers  in  France. 

The  importance  or  in  fact  the  necessity  of  efficiency  in  the  railroad 
organization  can  not  be  overestimated,  and  as  stated  by  the  Director 
General  in  his  report  to  the  President,  the  efficiency  of  the  railroads 
depends  entirely  upon  the  supply  and  condition  of  the  motive  power 
and  the  efficiency  with  which  it  is  operated. 

The  supply  of  locomotives  has  never  been  such  as  to  cause  serious 
apprehension,  because  with  18  per  cent,  which  is  approximately  one 
locomotive  in  every  six  out  of  service  for  repairs,  which  was  the  situ- 
ation last  winter,  we  could  not  well  say  that  a  shortage  of  locomotives 
existed.  The  important  question,  therefore,  was  to  get  the  locomo- 
tives in  shape  to  perform  efficient  service  and  to  maintain  them  in 
that  condition;  and,  at  the  present  time,  the  big  factor  in  this  is  the 
question  of  supervision  of  shops  and  shopwork. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Conmiission  reports  the  gross  revenues 
of  all  Class  1  railroads — that  is,  railroads  with  annual  operating 
revenues  in  excess  of  $1,000,000  for  the  year  ended  June,  1917,  as 
$3,824,419,739.  Of  this  amount,  $633,543,097,  or  almost  exactly  one- 
sixth  of  the  gross  income,  was  expended  for  maintenance  of  equip- 
ment. It  was  exceeded  by  only  one  item — transportation.  In  view 
of  the  prevailing  cost  of  labor  and  material,  this  figure  Avill  be  greatly 
exceeded  in  the  current  year. 

Ivc'ports  show  that  there  are  393,000  persons  employed  in  the  me- 
chanicn!  department  of  the  railroads  under  Federal  control,  of  whom 

04500° — 18  (2) 


UHU"^^''>1^ 


255,000  are  in  the  locomotive  department  and  138,000  in  the  car 
department.  These  are  the  persons  who  make  up  the  maintenance- 
of-equipment  forces,  and  -the  amount  paid  them  for  wages  with  the 
A'alue  of  the  material  they  use  makes  up  the  enormous  sum  under 
the  caption  "  Maintenance  of  equipment." 

To  insure  efficient  and  economical  handling  of  this  labor  and  ma- 
terial, organization  is  required,  and  the  prime  factor  in  any  organiza- 
tion is  supervision.  Railroad  forces,  and  particularly  maintcnanco 
of  equipment  forces,  have  been  subjected  to  heavy  drain  because  of 
the  war,  and  this  has  resulted  in  the  dilution  of  the  quality  of  lal)or. 
Because  of  this  dilution,  supervision  both  in  kind  and  in  quantity 
becomes  even  more  important  than  heretofore.  It  is  todaA'  the  hi(/ 
IDroblem  in  railroad  operation. 

Supervision  to  be  effective,  must  be  adequate  in  quantity;  there- 
fore, the  number  of  workmen  under  one  officer  must  be  such  that 
the  officer  is  in  constant  touch  with  his  force.  Persons  who  have 
studied  military  and  industrial  organizations  state  that  one  man  can 
properly  supervise  not  to  exceed  from  25  to  35  men,  a  figure  much 
below  that  which  is  often  used  in  railroad  work  Avhich  has  been 
known  to  extend  to  nearly  100  men. 

The  statements  as  to  the  number  of  men  who  can  be  propeily 
supervised  by  one  officer  are  based  on  studies  made  when  conditions 
were  normal.  In  view  of  the  necessity  for  the  intensive  use  of 
labor  and  material  todaj',  because  of  the  demand  for  both,  the  figures 
stated  are,  I  believe,  too  high. 

Supervision  to  be  effective,  must  be  constant.  The  withdrawal  of 
the  foreman  or  supervising  officer  from  his  duties  many  times  each 
day  to  answer  summons  from  those  in  authority,  the  preparation  of 
reports  and  routine  office  work  which  could  be  done  in  much  less 
time  by  persons  with  clerical  experience,  the  daily  attendance  of 
staff  meetings  which  necessitates  absence  from  usual  duties  for  periods 
ranging  from  30  minutes  to  2  hours,  are  not  conducive  to  efficient 
supervision. 

Many  supervisory  positions  have  been  permitted  to  become  super- 
visor}'^ positions  in  name  only.  We  find  superintendents  of  shops, 
master  mechanics,  general  foremen,  roundhouse  foremen,  and  even 
men  in  positions  of  lesser  responsibility,  required  to  devote  so  much 
time  to  office  work,  to  personally  transmitting  reports  to  superiors, 
and  to  other  work  of  like  character,  that  they  can  devote  little  or 
no  time  to  the  direction  of  the  active  work;  and  by  active  work  I 
mean  the  actual  expenditure  of  the  labor  and  material  under  their 
control. 

Supervision  to  be  effective,  must  be  respected,  and  this  applies 
to  those  of  higher  as  well  as  lower  rank.  The  possession  of  proper 
title  to  indicate  the  character  of  services  rendered,  which  will  com- 


maiKl  respect  from  tho^^e  under  his  jurisdiction  and  consideration 
from  those  in  other  departments  Avith  whom  he  comes  in  contact, 
is  a  necessary  advantage  which  should  be  given  each  supervising 
official. 

Active  competition  for  supervisory  positions  should  be  encouraged 
by  making  such  positions  as  attractive  as  possible;  and  if  this  is 
done  it  will  result  in  securing  the  best  material  available,  wdiich  is 
highly  essential  if  the  output  in  both  grade  and  in  quantity  is  to 
be  l^ept  up  to  the  standard. 

Supervision  to  be  effective,  must  be  instructive.  Some  one  has  said 
that  the  principal  reason  for  not  getting  the  result  we  anticipated 
was  because  we  failed  to  explain  just  what  was  wanted — a  lack  of 
understanding.  To  this  cause  may  be  laid  many  failures  both  of 
men  and  of  plans.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  that  instructions  be 
complete,  that  they  be  concise,  that  they  be  understandable,  and  that, 
above  all,  they  be  workable. 

The  issuance  of  orders  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world,  but  to 
issue  a  large  number  of  orders  is  to  insure  their  being  disregarded. 
Voluminous  instructions,  therefore,  should  be  carefully  avoided ;  and 
if  this  is  done,  and  the  instructions  issued  are  brief  and  are  to  the 
point,  better  observance  may  be  expected;  instructions  alone,  no  mat- 
ter how  carefully  prepared,  are  of  little  value  without  a  proper  fol- 
low-up or  checking  system  to  see  that  the  instructions  are  observed 
and  the  v.ork  up  to  the  required  standard. 

Supervision  to  be  effective,  must  be  courageous.  The  quality  of 
production  comes  from  the  top,  downward.  We  get  from  the  average 
workman  as  good  a  job  as  w^e  accept — no  better.  Supervision  must 
maintain  the  accepted  standards,  and  this  requires  in  many  cases  real 
courage;  but  it  is  necessary,  and  the  supervising  officer  is  the  only 
means  whereby  this  can  be  accomplished.  With  the  conditions  now 
existing,  the  maintenance  of  high  standards  is  necessary  to  the  morale 
of  the  forces  and  to  the  preservation  of  proper  discipline. 

As  previously  stated,  there  are  today  in  the  locomotive  depart- 
ment 255,000  employees  and  in  the  car  department  138,000  employees, 
a  total  of  393,000.  There  are  approximately  20,000  more  employees 
in  the  locomotive  department  today  than  there  were  a  year  ago 
and  approximately  8,000  more  in  the  car  department  than  for  this 
date  last  year.  Added  to  this,  we  are  working  more  hours,  many 
more  hours,  per  week  thah  we  did  a  year  ago.  AVith  the  increase  in 
force  and  the  increase  in  man  hours,  we  are  not  in  all  cases  receiving 
the  returns  wc  should.  I  attribute  this  largely  to  inefficient  super- 
vision. 

I  have  endeavored  to  point  out  some  of  the  essential  requirements 
of  effective  supervision,  but  it  must  be  more — it  must  be  responsible, 
as  authority  and  rcsponsibilty  go  hand  in  hand.    We  can  not  sepa- 


rate  them;  and  if  we  confer  adequate  authority  on  an  oflicer,  he 
must  have  sufficient  confidence  in  his  own  ability  and  judgment  to 
do  the  work  required  and  assume  the  responsibility  for  it. 

Since  the  Government  has  assumed  control  of  the  railroads  super- 
vising officers  have  often  made  the  statement  that  they  did  not  know 
just  what  authority  they  had;  and  m  many  instances,  when  matters 
which  have  always  been  handled  by  certain  officials  have  been  put 
up  to  them,  their  reply  has  been,  "I  do  not  know  whether  I  can 
handle  this  without  instructions  from  Washington,"  and  this  has  been 
given  as  an  excuse  for  failure  of  almost  all  kinds. 

Paragraph  1  of  General  Order  No.  1,  issued  by  the  Director 
General  on  December  29,  1917,  reads  as  follows : 

"  All  officers,  agents,  and  employees  of  such  transportation 
sj'stems  may  continue  in  the  performance  of  their  present  regu- 
lar duties,  reporting  to  the  same  officers  as  heretofore  and  on 
the  same  terms  of  employment." 

This,  in  the  absence  of  subsequent  orders  to  the  contrary,  seems  to 
me  to  effectually  dispose  of  any  doubt  as  to  the  authority  of  super- 
vising officers,  and  leaves  the  question  of  failure  to  properly  supervise[ 
the  work  squarely  up  to  the  official  involved.  AVhat  is  wanted  by 
the  Railroad  Administration  is  that  each  railroad  official  or  em- 
ployee who  remains  in  the  service,  who  continues  to  perform  the 
usual  duties  assigned  to  him,  will,  if  possible  to  do  so,  do  a  little 
more  work  than  he  ever  did  before  and  do  it  a  little  better. 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  authority  of  railroad  officials 
under  Government  control  to  perform  all  of  their  usual  duties,  and 
there  has  been  no  lack  of  support  from  the  Railroad  Administration 
when  those  duties  were  properly  and  diligently  performed. 

A  discussion  of  the  question  of  supervision  would  not  be  com- 
plete without  considering  cooperation  in  connection  therewith,  be- 
cause I  believe  the  real  test  of  the  supervising  officer  is  his  ability  to 
obtain  the  cooperation  of  the  men  working  under  his  direction.  I 
sometimes  feel,  however,  that  the  real  meaning  of  the  word  coopera- 
tion is  not  alwaj's  realized. 

Webster  defines  the  word  cooperation  as  "  To  operate  together  or 
jointly  for  a  common  object  or  a  conmion  end,''  and  Gladden  has 
well  said,  "  Men  can  not  cooperate  successfully  for  any  purpose  if  the 
sole  bond  between  them  is  self-interest." 

The  extent  to  which  the  supervising  officer  can  get  his  force  to  work 
together  for  a  common  object  depends  almost  entirely  upon  his  atti- 
tude toward  the  men  and  his  interest  in  the  work  that  is  being  done. 
The  supervising  officer  avIio  considers  that  his  full  duty  has  been  per- 
formed when  he  has  issued  instructions  covering  the  work  to  be  done, 
is  not  going  to  secure  any  great  amount  of  cooperation.  He  must 
show  the  employees  that  he  has  a  personal  interest  in  not  only  the 


work  but  in  the  workmen.  They  must  know  that  in  addition  to  passing 
out  the  work  sHps  he  is  going  to  follow  them  to  see  that  the  work 
is  promptly  done  and  in  a  workmanlike  manner.  He  should  also 
encourage  workmen  by  seeing  that  both  material  and  tools  are  sup- 
plied to  mechanics  so  that  they  may  keep  their  machines  in  operation, 
for  there  is  nothing  that  goes  further  to  discourage  a  good  mechanic 
and  curtail  the  output  than  to  require  him  to  shut  down  his  machine 
while  locating  materials  which  should  have  been  delivered  by  a 
laborer  or  to  secure  tools  which  a  tool  messenger  should  have 
delivered. 

There  is  nothing  that  will  keep  a  force  of  men  at  their  best  quite 
so  well  as  the  knowledge  that  the  supervising  officer  is  on  the  job  in- 
specting their  work,  both  as  to  quality  and  quantity,  and  that  good 
work  will  be  noted  and  the  workman  given  due  credit,  as  surely  as 
work  that  is  not  up  to  the  standard  will  be  corrected. 

In  addition  to  cooperation  between  employees  a»d  supervising 
officers  we  also  must  have  cooperation  between  different  depart- 
ments if  we  are  to  get  results  out  of  our  locomotive  shops. 

The  work  must  be  coordinated,  so  that  time  lost  by  one  depart- 
ment in  waiting  for  another  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  To  bring 
this  about  it  is  usually  necessary  for  certain  employees  in  one  de- 
partment to  work  overtime  or  to  make  an  extra  effort  so  that  some 
one  else  is  not  waiting  for  the  job  they  are  doing,  and  this  is  one 
of  the  times  when  cooperation  between  supervising  officials  and 
employees  is  of  direct  benefit,  because  without  it  there  is  frequentl}^ 
objection  on  the  part  of  the  employees  to  work  the  necessary  overtime 
to  help  some  one  else. 

Absolute  fairness  in  handling  this  is  also  necessary,  because  if 
the  employee  loses  confidence  in  the  supervising  officer's  fairness 
in  matters  of  this  kind  objection  to  the  overtime  worked  will  usually 
result. 

Cooperation  betjyeen  shops  and  roundhouses  is  extremely  impor- 
tant, and  roundhouse  jobs  should  be  given  preference  and  promptly 
handled,  because  in  this  way  many  locomotive  hours  may  be  saved. 

Increased  shop  output  due  to  closer  cooperation  and  better  super- 
vision over  the  maintenance  of  power  will  avail  us  little  without 
cooperation  between  the  transportation  and  the  mechanical  depart- 
ments with  respect  to  the  use  of  power. 

The  freight  locomotive  miles  for  the  period  from  January  1  to 
June  30,  1918,  was  370.489,310.  This  mileage  was  made  by  31,197 
serviceable  freight  locomotives,  and  represents  an  average  daily 
mileage  of  05. 0  per  locomotive.  An  increase  of  5  miles  per  day  for 
each  freight  locomotive  will  result  in  an  increase  of  7.02  per  cent 
in  our  freiglit  locomotive  miles  and  would  be  the  equivalent,  meas- 
ured by  any  standard,  of  7.02  per  cent  increase  in  our  freight  loco- 


AA  000  732  369  4 
motive  stock.  It  would  bo  equivalent  to  addinsr  2.377  liKouiotivos 
to  our  present  equipment.  With  three  exceptions,  this  exceeds  the 
present  number  of  locomotives  on  any  railroad  in  the  country.  It 
is  t)62  locomotives  more  than  the  total  number  ordered  by  the  Rail- 
road Administration  for  their  1918  requirements,  and  represents  the 
entire  production  of  our  locomotive  builders  for  five  months. 

Fignrino-  the  average  cost  of  a  locomotive  at  $00,000,  it  represents 
a  capital  expenditure  of  $1  •1:2 ,020,000.  With  the  average  mileage  per 
serviceable  freight  locomotive  down  to  Oo.G  per  cent,  is  there  any 
conceivable  plan  by  which  the  expenditure  of  this  vast  sum  of  money 
can  be  so  easily  avoided  as  by  increasing  our  existing  freight  loco- 
motive mileage  by  5  per  day?  Particularly  when  we  compare  the 
average  performance  with  the  best  mileage  made  by  any  Class  1 
railroad  during  that  period,  which  is  101.9,  made  by  one  of  the  coal- 
carrying  roads  with  heavy  traffic  and  numerous  branch  lines  and 
mine  runs.  Therefore  it  can  not  be  said  to  have  been  made  under 
exceptionally  favorable  conditions. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  there  are  few  railroads  w^here  the  average  miles 
per  day  can  not  be  increased  twice  5  by  properly  utilizing  the  time 
serviceable  locomotives  are  unnecessarily  dela3'ed  at  terminals. 

In  addition  to  the  saving  above  referred  to,  this  will  also  reduce 
the  amount  of  terminal  overtime  paid  and  the  number  of  crews  which 
must  be  relieved  under  the  hours-of -service  law,  and  without  this 
cooperation  on  the  part  of  the  transportation  department  in  the  use 
of  locomotives  the  very  best  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  builders  and  the 
repair  shops  will  not  be  able  to  supply  the  demand,  because  there  has 
never  been  a  supply  of  anything  so  unlimited  that  if  wastefully  used 
it  would  not  at  some  time  or  other  lead  to  a  shortage. 

The  freight  car  miles  for  the  first  six  months  in  1918  were  more 
than  one  hnndred  and  ninety  billion.  This  mileage  was  made  by 
2,410,907  freight  cars,  and  represents  an  average  of  24.3  miles  per  car 
each  day.  If  we  can  increase  this  figure  but  2  miles  per  day,  it  will 
have  the  effect  of  increasing  the  car  miles  8.25  per  cent,  or  over  fif- 
teen billion  car  miles.  It  Avould  represent  an  increase  in  our  freight 
car  stock  of  198,417  cars.  This  number  of  cars  figured  at  $1,350 
each  would  add  $207,862,950  to  capital,  would  require  more  than 
one  year  for  their  construction,  and  is  about  twice  the  number  of 
cars  which, the  Railroad  Administration  ordered  for  their  1918  re- 
quirements. 

These  figures  are  given  not  because  it  is  expected  that  everyone 
will  be  able  to  equal  the  best  under  the  varied  operating  conditions, 
but  it  is  evident  from  the  wide  nuu-gin  between  the  average  mileage 
per  locomotive  and  the  best  mileage  per  locomotive  that  the  average 
conceals  some  very  disgraceful  individual  performances  which  should 
be  improved;  and  in  the  conservation  of  fuel,  of  steel,  of  labor,  and 
of  time  this  is  a  field  that  should  not  be  neglected. 


8 

The  railroads  were  taken  over  by  the  Government  not  because  it 
desired  to  go  into  the  raih'oad  business,  but  because  under  the  con- 
ditions which  existed  at  that  time  increased  efficiency  was  absolutely 
necessary. 

The  efficiency  with  which  the  railroads  had  been  operated  prior 
to  that  time  was  not  the  question  at  issue,  because  however  great 
that  may  have  been,  still  greater  efficiency  was  required. 

It  has  been  the  general  impression  among  the  people,  if  we  are 
to  judge  by  the  remarks  made  when  the  subject  was  discussed,  that 
Government  operation  of  railroads  would  simply  establish  a  big 
political  machine,  and  that  efficient  railroad  men  w^ould  be  displaced 
to  make  room  for  politicians,  and  for  that  reason  the  present  organi- 
zations would  be  destroj'ed  and  replaced  by  inefficient  ones.  Nothing 
could  be  further  from  the  truth  so  far  as  the  present  Railroad  Ad- 
ministration is  concerned.  Order  No.  1  of  the  Director  General  has, 
I  think,  made  it  clear  that  under  Government  control  of  railroads 
there  would  be  no  disposition  to  replace  competent,  experienced  rail- 
road officials  or  emiolo3'ees.  In  fact  I  can  say  emphaticall}^  that  no 
railroad  official  or  employee  who  is  efficient  and  diligent  in  the  per- 
formance of  his  work  was  ever  so  secure  in  his  position  as  he  is  at 
the  present  time. 

The  question  before  us  at  the  present  time  is  not  as  to  whether 
Government  control  or  Government  ownership  of  railroads  is  a  good 
thing  or  a  bad  thing ;  that  will  be  settled  by  the  people  after  the  war. 

The  question  before  the  railroad  officials  and  employees  to-day  is 
solely  one  of  operating  efficiency  and  still  greater  efficiency  in  order 
to  meet  the  demands  placed  upon  them.  The  operation  of  the  rail- 
roads of  the  country  as  a  unit  during  the  war  is  the  most  severe  test 
that  has  ever  been  placed  upon  the  railroad  men  of  the  country. 

The  operation  of  railroads  is  not  only  the  Railroad  Administra- 
tion's job,  it  is  also  the  railroad  men's  job.  It  is  not  the  Railroad  xVd- 
ministration's  reputation  that  is  at  stake,  it  is  the  reputation  of  the 
■ailroad  men  that  is  at  stake,  and  that  brings  the  issua  down  to  each 
ndividual,  jutit  where  it  sliould  be. 

The  question  before  us  is  not  what  is  the  other  fellow  doing  nor 
what  did  we  do  last  year,  but  what  am  I  doing  now  to  help  increase 
the  efficiency  of  railroad  operation.  Tliis  (juc.-lion  will  be  best 
answered  by  the  record  of  achievement. 

The  railroad  men  of  the  country  have  furnished  Ihcir  full  quota 
for  the  front  in  all  branches  of  service.  They  have  gone  over  the 
loj)  in  the  Liberty  loans.  They  have  repaired  more  locomotives  and 
j)ulkHl  more  tons  of  freight  than  ever  before,  and  I  am  sure  that  the 
record  of  o])eratiim  ellicicncy  will  be  e(|uall,y  as  good  during  the  time 
the  railroads  are  under  the  control  of  the  Administration. 

o 


